ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: The director of the FBI and I just returned
from a memorial service at the National Cathedral and wanted to
take this time to give you a report in regard to these matters.

Today the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a list of 19
individuals who have been identified as hijackers aboard the four
airliners that crashed on Tuesday. The FBI requests that anyone
who may have information about these individuals, even though
these individuals are presumed to be dead -- anyone with
information about these individuals immediately contact an FBI
field office or call the toll-free hotline. The toll-free
hotline, as you know, is 1-866-483- 5137 -- 1-866-483-5137.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also forwarded a list of
more than 100 names to numerous law enforcement organizations.
These are the names of individuals the FBI would like to talk to
because we believe they may have information that could be
helpful to the investigation. The organizations that we have
submitted these names to include the Federal Aviation
Administration, the airlines, FBI field offices, about 18,000
police departments across America, the U.S. Border Patrol and the
U.S. Customs Service. Now, the nature of this list is that it
would be changing constantly as people are either removed from it
or added to it.

But we believe that the individuals on the list may have
information that could be helpful to us in our efforts.

I want to take this moment to extend our appreciation to state
and local law enforcement organizations that have cooperated with
this investigation, have acted responsibly, and have been very
helpful to us. Their dedication and swift action has been
essential to the progress of the investigation.

I'm pleased now to call upon the director to give you some more
information.

MR. MUELLER: Before we answer questions, I thought I would fill
you in on the extent of the investigation to date.

As of today, we have 4,000 special -- FBI special agents who are
working on the case in various offices around the country and on
various aspects of the investigation, and we have 3,000 support
employees also on the investigation. Twenty FBI legat offices are
running down leads overseas, and all 56 FBI offices around the
country are engaged in the investigation. We have conference
calls several times a day to make certain that everything is
being coordinated appropriately.

To date, we have had more than 36,000 total leads. Of those, over
30,000 have come in off the Internet, 3,800 have been received on
the FBI hot line, and another 2,400 have been generated through
the various field offices.

As you well know and have picked up, we've conducted hundreds of
interviews around the country. We've served over 30 search
warrants in various places. Hundreds of subpoenas have been
issued, and we have, in the course of seizing some of those
search -- those -- executing some of those search warrants, we
have seized computers, other documentary information that are
following up on.

One other point I'd make before we respond to questions, and that
is that we have dispatched to -- sent to the various major
airports FBI agents, teams of FBI agents, to assist in quickly
resolving any incidents that may come up when passengers are -- a
passenger or passengers are attempting to board an aircraft or
obtain a ticket and there's some question raised, so we can
minimize the inconvenience to the person who may well be stopped
and also swiftly resolve the issue.

And with that, I believe we're happy to take whatever questions
you might have.

Q Director, have you obtained -- have you obtained under seal or
otherwise any fugitive-from-justice warrants, in other words,
leveled any kind of charges against anyone in this investigation?

MR. MUELLER: Well, if it were under seal, I probably couldn't
tell you. But I can say that there have been no FBI arrests at
this time. Any detentions that have occurred have been pursuant
to immigration holds where an individual's been out of status.

Q Director, the list of hijackers, have they been connected to
organizations connected to bin Laden?

MR. MUELLER: I can't get into the details of that.

Q Director --

Q Director, did it astonish you that --

MR. MUELLER: Sorry. We'll take one and then two. Yes, sorry.

Q Did it just astonish you that they trained -- all their
training came from the U.S., there were so many of them trained
as pilots and that they lived in the open, they weren't hiding
their identities? Does any of that astonish you or shock you?

MR. MUELLER: Well, the tragedies quite clearly astonish and shock
me and the country. The fact that there were a number of
individuals that happened to have received training at flight
schools here is news, quite obviously. If we had understood that
to be the case, we would have -- perhaps one could have averted
this. But beyond that, I and I think everybody else is just
astonished at the extent of the tragedy as a result of what
happened last Tuesday.

Yes, sir.

Q Director, there were two people removed from a flight last
night, I guess it was New York. And those two people's names
appeared on a (watch list ?) How did they get on -- how were they
able to board if their names were on --

MR. MUELLER: All I can tell you that that was pursuant to a watch
list other than those names were pursuant -- were on the watch
list for reasons not related to this investigation.

Q Mr. Mueller, on the list of the hijackers, two quick questions.
One is there are several shared last names. Were many of them
related to one another? And the second question is, Del Ray Beach
and Hollywood, Florida, seem to be very common residences. Do you
know whether those were like bases of operation for these men?

MR. MUELLER: I can't -- we are still -- while we have the names
for the manifest and are still pursuing investigations of those
names to try to document and absolutely be certain that the
person that went down with the plane fits with the name on the
manifest, the further association of the names we're still
investigating.

Q Director, what can you tell us about --

Q And the Del Ray Beach --

MR. MUELLER: All I can say, that there are a number of places in
the country, without specifying any particular place,

where we have conducted a number of interviews and several search
warrants -- executed several search warrants.

Yes, sir?

Q What can you tell us about a D.C. Police all-points bulletin
being put out about a silver or gray minivan that may be

carrying a chemical weapon?

MR. MUELLER: I can't tell you anything about that.

Yes, sir?

Q What have you learned from the cockpit voice recorder and from
the flight data recorders of the two planes?

MR. MUELLER: They're currently over at the NTSB, and I think the
question should be directed to the NTSB on those at this instant.

Q But they referred us to you.

MR. MUELLER: As of this moment, we have not learned or received
anything off those recorders. Well, actually, I should say, we
have not received anything off the voice data recorder. There is
a -- that recorder, which is other than the voice data recorder
at the Pentagon that we picked up, and we did receive information
off that.

Q What did that tell you about that flight, about its path?

MR. MUELLER: I can't get into that now, sir.

Yes, sir?

Q (Off mike) -- but what confidence do you have the names on the
list are actually the people who were on the plane, as opposed to
aliases or stolen identities? Do you have a level of confidence
there yet?

MR. MUELLER: There -- I think we have a fairly high level of
confidence, but, as you -- when we spoke to you yesterday we had
18 individuals who we believed were the hijackers. We now have a
19th that our investigation has disclosed was probably one of the
hijackers on that plane that left Dulles. And consequently,
continuous investigation updates our confidence, or level of
confidence, degree of confidence, in assuring that the person who
actually was on the plane is associated with the name.

Yes, sir?

Q Have you identified any suspects or individuals who you believe
still are at large who may have been the leaders or masterminds
of this conspiracy?

MR. MUELLER: I'm sorry, what --

Q Have you identified any suspects who are -- you believe are
still at large in the United States, who were the masterminds or
leaders of this conspiracy?

MR. MUELLER: I cannot get into the details of the investigation.
Suffice it to say, if we believe that there is somebody in the
United States who is associated with this conspiracy and we had
evidence upon which to base a charge, we would have and would
level that charge.

Yes, sir?

Q Robert, can you say anything about the immigration status of
the 19? Are any of them out of legal status?

MR. MUELLER: I think we -- I believe we tried to provide some of
those visa details on the listing that we provided to you.

I can say that some of them were out of status, yes. I'm not
certain how many or which names -- or which individuals whose
names appeared on the manifest and we believe to be a hijacker,
was out of status.

Yes?

Q It's common for the FBI to name a case agent on a big case.
Have you guys done that on this one?

MR. MUELLER: The investigation is being run by Tom Pickard out of
headquarters here, with Dale Watson and numerous other, I would
say, "senior" FBI agents assisting in various capacities.

Q And the name of the investigation, sir? Has the investigation
been given a name, and what is it?

MR. MUELLER: PENTBOMB --

Q I'm sorry --

MR. MUELLER: PENTBOMB -- P-E-N-T-B-O-M-B.

Q Can you address the issue of intelligence failure? You didn't
know anything about any of these guys, we still don't know a lot
about them. What --